Method of rinsing endoscopes

Abstract

The method is a method of rinsing an endoscope in an endoscope cleaner placed in a vessel. The method includes a step of charging a surfactant into a vessel in addition to water to fill the vessel with a first rinse water containing the surfactant, a step of rinsing the endoscope placed in the vessel with the first rinse water, a step of supplying only water into the vessel after rinsing with the first rinse water to fill the vessel with a second rinse water that does not contain the surfactant and a step of rinsing the endoscope with the second rinse water. In the method, the action of the surfactant contained in the detergent is effectively utilized in a rinsing treatment of the endoscope while the endoscope is rinsed to thereby ensure that re-deposition of dirt is suppressed to enhance the overall cleaning efficiency.

Description

[0001]The entire contents of documents cited in this specification are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to a method of rinsing endoscopes after they have been cleaned; more particularly, it relates to a method of rinsing endoscopes in an automatic cleaner.[0003]In the specification, simply “cleaning an endoscope” refers to a broad sense of “cleaning,” i.e., a whole cleaning process of cleaning and disinfecting an endoscope including a step of cleaning an endoscope with detergent, a step of disinfecting the thus cleaned endoscope with disinfectant, and a step of rinsing the disinfected endoscope, while a “cleaning an endoscope with detergent” refers to a narrow sense of “cleaning,” i.e., a specific cleaning step being only a step of cleaning an endoscope with detergent.[0004]As is well known, the endoscope is inserted into cavities in the human body or other living bodies for use in various applications including the diag...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]An object, therefore, of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art by providing a method of rinsing endoscopes, in which the action of a surfactant contained in the detergent is effectively utilized in a rinsing treatment of the endoscope while the endoscope is rinsed to thereby ensure that re-deposition of dirt is suppressed to enhance the overall cleaning efficiency.

[0030]According to the present invention, the rinsing of an endoscope starts with adding a surfactant to water so that it is first rinsed with the water containing the surfactant, and then rinsed with water only. Because of this procedure, the action of the surfactant is effectively utilized so that the re-deposition of dirt is effectively suppressed to enhance the rinsing efficiency.

[0031]According to an embodiment of the present invention, the surfactant is added to water in such an amount that its concentration is close to the critical micelle concentration and this allows the surfactant in the rinse water to exhibit its action to the fullest extent so that the re-deposition of dirt is effectively suppressed to enhance the rinsing efficiency.

[0032]According to another embodiment of the present invention, the water in the surfactant-containing rinse water is used at ordinary temperature, namely, at the temperature at which it has been supplied from the faucet (water supply), whereas rinsing with water alone uses rinse water at a higher temperature; this provides effectiveness for suppressing the re-deposition of dirt in the first half of the rinse step whereas in the second half of the rinse step, it provides effectiveness for promoting the removal of the surfactant deposited on the endoscope, with the result that the rinse efficiency is again enhanced.

[0033]According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the effects just described above are of course obtained and, what is more, overflow rinsing is performed in the first half of the rinse step but pool rinsing is performed in the second half of the rinse step, and this contributes to a further enhancement of the rinse efficiency.

[0034]Thus, according to the present invention, by enhancing the rinse efficiency in the respective embodiments described above, the overall cleaning efficiency can be enhanced.

Problems solved by technology

However, according to the technique described in JP 7-204591 A, the detergent component carried into the pre-rinse vessel as a deposit on the article being cleaned is not removed but simply recycled for further use in the pre-rinse vessel, so the concentration of the detergent in the pre-rinse vessel is not held constant.

Hence, satisfactory results cannot always be assured in preventing the dirt components from being re-deposited on the article of interest.

As a further problem, most of the conventional endoscope cleaners use a single vessel to perform cleaning, rinse and disinfection and each time the cleaning and disinfecting cycle ends, the processing fluid in the vessel is replaced.

Hence, the endoscope cleaner does not cause the detergent component to be built up in the rinse step after the cleaning step and the concentration of the detergent component in the rinse water is always so low that it is not likely to be effective in preventing re-deposition of the dirt components.

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